"You're no different than a druggie," a soon-to-be ex-girlfriend hissed at me during a fight many years ago. She didn't like the frequency of and the importance I placed on exercise.

I believe what she really didn't like was that my life didn't revolve around her, but that's really here nor there.What matters is that her comment caused me to consider the possibility. After all, articles have been written about people who are adversely addicted to exercise.Was I?After much introspection, I decided no. What I had developed, I believed, was a positive habit that made me feel really good, so good that I made it a priority. My frequency of exercise was not an out-of-control craving, but a cerebral calculation.If I'm addicted to anything, I acknowledged, it isn't exercise. It's the afterglow, the glorious afterglow.After I break a sweat, breath hard, and feel pleasantly - or not so pleasantly - fatigued, all is right with the world.Food tastes better. Problems seem manageable. I become more tolerant of others, kinder to myself, and more aware of the wonders of the world.The glorious afterglow: It's why you need to consider early-morning exercise. Wouldn't it be great to experience something so calming before you begin the craziness called your typical day?The benefits of early-morning exercise, however, do not end with the afterglow.People who consider themselves procrastinators have told me that getting up earlier than normal solely to work out works for them. "It's easier to get started [exercising] when I know I have to shower by seven to make it to work [on time]," one of them shared.Too often, when you plan to work out later in the day, you find other things that you decide you need to do first. As a result, exercise gets delayed and delayed until there's no time left in the day.Exercise before breakfast and you gain another advantage: greater fat burn. After sleeping and fasting for eight, 10, or even 12 hours, your blood sugar is low; therefore, your body seeks an alternate energy source.Body fat.A 2013 study performed in England, for instance, found that those who worked out in the morning on an empty stomach burned 20 percent more fat than those who worked out in the morning after breakfast. Early-morning exercise also aids those who struggle to fall asleep at night.Despite such benefits, arguing for you to work out before the work day can be a tough sell - especially for night owls.But hear me out. And take heart. It can be done. At one time, I could've never imagined getting up before work and working out.Then my third year of teaching began, and so did the graduate courses from six to nine two nights a week. And two weeks prior to that, I had started coaching boys and the girls cross-country for the first time.Where was I ever going to find the time to exercise?If I tried to do so after school, I wasn't. But if I started getting up early ....I will not lie and claim it was an easy change to make. The first few times I heard that alarm at 4:30 a.m. (or 4:00 for longer workouts), I thought, "No way."But then I'd amend the phrase to "no way am I going a day without exercise" and start stretching while still under the covers.In about three weeks, the new pattern took hold. By that time, I had come to love running in the darkness, lifting in solitude, and the peace found in both. Combine that with the afterglow that I quickly learned was soon to follow and getting up early got easier and easier.If this article has piqued your interest enough to try early-morning workouts, great. Just be sure to allow your body time to wake-up.In my twenties and thirties, it seemed as if I could roll out of bed and work out. Now, if I'm doing more than a recovery workout and want to push myself, I need a minimum of an hour between waking and lifting.And a good dose of caffeine as soon as possible.If you only consume caffeine before targeted workouts two or three times a week, a strong cup of coffee or two of green tea will allow you to exercise harder and longer, especially on an empty stomach. Even better, according to a number of studies and my own anecdotal evidence, is to ingest caffeine as a supplement.A caveat you need to consider: the benefits of early-morning exercise can be negated if it comes at the expense of needed sleep.A review published this year in the European Journal of Clinical Nutrition, for instance, found that subjects who slept between three and a half and five and a half hours one night ate on the average 385 calories more the next day as opposed to the subjects who slept seven hours or more.